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The attached memorandum from Peter Broadbent reports on the results of the 22 November meeting of the Virginia Joint Commission on Health Care which considered a number of options possibly impacting our access to Virginia Vital Records. Among the proposals addressed by the Commission included initiatives by the Virginia Genealogical Society to improve genealogical access to those records.

The results of this session are preliminary and only partially addressed issues of concern to us. Additional action on the part of the full legislature will be required to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

In Peter’s words:

“On the positive side, the genealogical community generated over 400 comments to legislators
in the last few weeks, and VDH’s attempts to lengthen the “closed” periods were rejected by the
Commission. Reducing the “closed” periods for death and marriage records to 25 years would by
itself be a major accomplishment.”

We will continue to work with our colleagues with the Virginia genealogical community in an effort to improve access to the resources we need. We expect to have more information to share after the Legislature convenes in January.